building education and workforce readiness in a digital world
TRANSCRIPT
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BUILDING EDUCATION & WORKFORCE READINESS IN A DIGITAL WORLD
!Tess Posner
Managing Director!
@tessposner@samausa_
Ved Photo
SamaUSA provides low-income Americans with digital skills and access to internet-based jobs to help them move out of poverty.
OUR MODEL
SamaUSA trains low-income populations to earn money through online job platforms. By bringing digital literacy and Internet-based work opportunities to disadvantaged areas, we aim to transform communities across the nation through technology.
MARKETABLE SKILLS
Business and Personal Blogging!Customer Service!Virtual Assistant!
DIGITAL WORK READINESS
Soft skills!Entrepreneurship !Financial Literacy!
ACCESS AND EXPOSURE
Representatives from online work platforms provide extra coaching !Each graduate is equipped with a laptop
CURRENT OPERATIONS
SamaUSA developed an online work training program that piloted in March 2013. !After meeting our pilot benchmarks, we began grew to serving six communities nationwide. We currently are expanding both online and internationally.
THE FUTURE OF WORK
Knowledge Economy
Global Competition + Collaboration
Gig Economy
Fluid Work Arrangements
Remote Work
Rapid Change
Globalization
Technology
Recession
Sources: RAND, DOL, Future of Work, Jacob Morgan
Demographics
INCREASING DEMAND OF TECH SKILLS
56% Female
In 10 years, 75% of jobs are predicted to require tech skills, up from 50% today.
Percent of jobs
requiring tech skills,
2024
Source: Pew Internet Project
STRATEGY 2013 (EST.) 2014
RISE OF THE SELF-EMPLOYED WORKER
0%
20%
40%
60%
1989 2014 2020
Today, there are over 53 million freelancers and they are projected to be 50% of the workforce by 2020.
*Projected
Source: oDesk/ Elance, Intuit Report
Online work is growing over 22%, compared with 3% in offline jobs. !!There are over 80 online work platforms posting millions of jobs per year in hundreds of job categories.
VIRTUAL JOB MARKETPLACES BOOMING
Source: oDesk/ Elance, Intuit Report
Curriculum !Prepare students for the new economy with core skills needed for jobs of the future.!Program Structure Able to adapt and change along with labor market.!
OLD MODELS NEED REFRESHING
Workforce training and education must evolve in response to the changing economy:
1
2
CORE SKILLS FOR THE NEW ECONOMY
Digital skills !
Entrepreneurship !
Flexibility and adaptability !
Life-long learning!
SUCCESS STORY: FROM LOCAL TO VIRTUAL
“I’m learning to use the Internet as a tool to teach myself new skills” !Kristen Logan, 40, Merced, CA Administrative Assistant !!Virtual Assistant
WORKFORCE EDUCATION PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Responsive to labor market changes1
Agile and Iterative2
2 Data-driven
BUILD
LEARN MEASURE
Build baseline program
Implement baseline to test assumptions & measure relevant metrics
Apply learning to the next iteration of the program
This cycle allows us to quickly generate hypotheses, test assumptions, and make improvements based on collected data.
LEAN STARTUP FOR AGILE PROGRAMS
CHANGE BRINGS OPPORTUNITIES!Greater access to information !New sources of income + jobs !Meaningful work + lifelong learning !Collaboration on a global scale!
